You can stick people into two groups. Those who comply and those don't. Those who comply do so for their own safety and the safety of others. They do so for the greater collective good. Those who don't don't comply feel they themselves are the most important unit and will break any rule which suggests otherwise. These people are from the political right.
Because SARS – CoV 2 favours the non-complying group I comply. I wear a mask, wash my hands, physically distance and avoid crowds, try to stay as healthy as I can – easier for some than others.
"This metasynthesis provides among the most compelling evidence to date that personality predicts overall health and well-being."
In the past weeks own south people seem pretty relaxed about L2, basically not really doing much. More Q codes visible, some manual lists to sign, signs telling people to keep their distance, but while people are aware I guess, seems like it's a bit lax. Presumably because most people think there's no covid here. I assume people are allowed to leave Auckland now so hopefully that perception will change.
Anyone know why 900 state houses in Porirua were handed over to iwi, even though the government promised to put an end to privatisation of state housing?
Probably part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement and I would not call handing these houses over to Iwi to administer privatisation. Meeting of a treaty settlement is paramount I would have thought. What owners do then is the same as any other owner whose land has been taken. Some handing back is subject to restrictions but I am not sure if this part of the Treaty claim was.
I am looking forward to the time when Paraparaumu airport, taken for Defence purposes around the time of WW2 and the Iwi never compensated, is handed back.
Any shareholder owned organisation that's accumulating and reinvesting virtually all returns from invested settlement assets is by definition a private business.
Iwi have businesses (like the government), but they're not businesses. The Pākehā system forced Māori to adopt Iwi legal structures that suited Pākehā, but Iwi themselves predate any modern concept of business by a long time.
And does or should this overly technical approach by Joe90 override the fact that these settlements endeavour to bring the Iwi into a situation that they should have been had the Treaty of Waitangi breach not occurred.
I think not.
As Weka has said these are our Treaty partners, they have been badly treated in cases where Maori land has been taken for Public Works such as housing, roads, schools etc etc. and most have chosen a range or mix of former crown assets and $$$ to settle their grievances. It is mean-spirited not to allow Iwi to conduct their own commercial operations. Some of these ops have meant that Iwi does the managing eg Ngai Tahu and others the managing has been done by the former Govt dept.
If land owned by the Crown is not going to be in the mix, and Iwi want productive land as part of their settlement then the Treaty Settlements will stall big time.
I think to define the use of assets returned under Treaty settlements as private business is simplistic. To trammel the return of assets to Iwi with strictures on future use risks setting up yet another ToW claim. There are crown assets such as particular reserves that are not available for sale that are passed over to Iwi control.
Possibly it is a lack of knowledge about what the meaning of being a treaty partner is that has led to these mystifying picky comments
I would suggest that readers look at some of these settlements
Some of us who were around in Govt Depts when the full force of the Rogernomics was upon us will recall that it was only the intervention of our Treaty partner, by and through the NZ Maori Council taking Court cases, that some of the worst land related affects such as the proposal to sell the land under the trees as well as the forest crops were tossed out. Ordinary NZers had no ability to seek any stop to the tidal wave of Rogernomics that was going on. There were several cases other than the Forestry one where they over turned what had been proposed. Our Treaty partners have stepped up many times over the years since 1840, and it behoves us to treat their claims in a generous and fair-spirited way.
"The Speaker has referred independent MP Jami-Lee Ross to the Privileges Committee for misusing edited parliamentary TV video for political ads.
"Trevor Mallard ordered the anti-vaccination video – posted by Ross's party and that of Billy Te Kahika's NZ Public Party – to be removed from social media, but that's been met with a blunt refusal.
Parliamentary footage of an exchange between government minister Megan Woods and National's Erica Stanford was edited for use in the political ad, posted on several sites."
Yeah I wonder why we can't force the main internet players twitter facebook etc to have a "local office" so that when something like this comes along they can easily be contacted so that at the very least it can be labeled "false" or "edited"or taken down fast rather than going through some offshore process.
Yes, it is certainly time for government to declare that being connected is a right and then ensure that the means exist for people to fulfil that right without being ripped off by private enterprise.
In other words, time to re-nationalise telecommunications and to produce capable phones and PCs here in NZ also by a government owned production process.
This is a very real problem with both government and private sector. There are whole communities that are effectively excluded.
I've stayed offline because I can't be bothered with the being hacked bit plus I have the ability to complain loudly – which not everyone has.
The government needs to sort its act out for starters. Any government fee or charge should be capable of being paid on the ground with no extra charge or fee payable – that is far from the current situation. Nor should costs and access be pushed sideways onto community organisations libraries funded by ratepayers etc.
There is also the major secondary discrimination- there are government jobs that cannot be applied for unless a real me id is used. Citizen tracking by default.
edit
There is a major and obvious question here, so obvious that nobody has thought to ask it. Did the citizens get asked if they agreed to have government retreat from face to face dealings, to only communicating with citizens through machines? Was it right that such swingeing changes were enabled by a handful of anarchists? Were taxpayers advised that lower taxes meant limited human input into dealing with citizens?
Were people enabled to discuss the result of withdrawal of government from the ordering of people's lives and that elections and ministers in government were becoming less and less true agents of the people? Perhaps if there wasn't so much hype about how marvellous it is, and truthfulness instead of truthiness about this bloody technological takeover and its constant expansion with obsolescence designed in, people might see things as they are, not rosy at all.
Addlepated* is a great word for the quandary we are in. Google quickly finds all I need to know to describe the poor state we and our state are in. I don't think that is quixotic (extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.)
* In Middle English an adel eye was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an adel eye (or addle egg as it came to be called in modern English) and an empty, confused head—or pate. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addlepated
I want government back – with real people, and all channels open to all citizens., on-line plus traditional. I think that we need to reorganise Parliament though, and all people who work for government have to have a skill or profession that they have worked at adequately for five years before applying for government jobs.
Corin Dan this morning commenting (to Phil Goff I think) that the poor messaging that asked South and West Aucklanders to get tested "muddied the waters" on the country's response and then goes on to ask questions that invite others to muddy the messaging even further.
The PM on TVNZ this morning sensibly sidestepped a question about opening the borders because of "business". If she had addressed it, anything she said would be used to muddy the country's response at the moment. The best response for the economy is a health response. What is the sharemarket doing at the moment? Is the MSM banging on about it?
The thing about Distributed Denial of Service Attacks is they are often (always?) done by people activating Bot Nets.
"
A botnet is a logical collection of Internet-connected devices such as computers, smartphones or IoT devices whose security have been breached and control ceded to a third party. Each compromised device, known as a "bot", is created when a device is penetrated by software from a malware (malicious software) distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels formed by standards-based network protocols, such as IRC and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[3][4]
Those who are not complying with wearing a mask the reasons why not would need to be known. Wise to wear a mask and not a team player if not wearing a mask.
I have a goal of making 500 cloth masks and donating them where needed. I will even cut extra elastic for ear loops and safety pin it on the mask as the elastic may wear due to a hot soapy hand wash.
I feel that a new cluster could only be a day away anywhere.
Another Auckland CCO failure. Not Watercare, this time it's POAL. Not content with shitting on Aucklanders by building a bloody great carpark in the middle of the harbour, Ports of Auckland is an exploitative employer as well.
The next government needs to take a serious look at the corporate model of governance for public utilities. The profit motive does not deliver for the people, only a bunch of MBA executives whose only skills are "cost" cutting and bullshit.
No. Just that massive port and truckie testing drive a few weeks ago. And the fact the Auckland outbreak is still sourced to Americold.
They still came up with nothing but a possible theory: Foreign crew member > stevedore > truck-driver > Americold worker. These people generally work (and have smoke breaks) in close contact so I wonder if there was a bit of mixing going on which shouldn't have happened.
I've had thoughts often re Americool as their Melbourne branch apparently had 2 cases a fortnight earlier – I know they dismiss it but seeing how some things are packed and that it can withstand cold surely is not just coincidence.
Around August 15th through 18th there was a big fluffy of articles about Americold Melbourne covid cases getting genome sequenced.
I have yet to find anything explicitly saying the genomes were different to the B.1.1.1 strain in the outbreak here, but I think it's safe to assume that if the Melbourne cases were also B.1.1.1 we would have heard all about it.
Over the last thirty odd years we've seen that the profit motive always brings about the worst possible response and does not meet the needs of the community.
Tony Gibson again, "Their health is our number one concern." Sure it is, mate. Sure it is. This guy was an arsehole all through the strikes, and he's still an arsehole.
The Pentagon is forming a new task force to investigate UFOs that have been observed by US military aircraft, according to two defense officials. Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist will help oversee the task force
Members of Congress and Pentagon officials have long expressed concerns about the appearance of the unidentified aircraft that have flown over US military bases, posing a risk to military jets. There is no consensus on their origin… The Senate Intelligence Committee voted in June to have the Pentagon and intelligence community provide a public analysis of the encounters, following the official Pentagon release of three short videos showing US aircraft encountering these phenomena.
You can understand how distressing it must be when your top guns get left flat-footed all the time. Hard to be macho. The hormones just stop flowing.
If US intelligence would only learn from random website entrepreneurs posing as tech expert theoreticians, instead of believing what defense personnel & hotshot pilots saw, everyone would live happily ever after… 👽
Hotshot pilots with a penchant for trolling those who want to believe.
Said Fravor, “We used to fly night vision goggles… [and] you can see a campfire from like fifty miles away. So we would go out at night flying around on goggles. You’d see a campfire and go, ‘Oh. UFO time’”. “[Y]ou get the airplane going around 600 knots and then you pull the power back to idle so you can’t hear it. Then you get zinging toward the fire and you turn the lights all down because we’re in a restricted area so you can do that. There’s lights on it you can only see if you’re on vision goggles. So the other airplanes can see us, but no one else can see us. Then you go zinging at it and right when you get to the campfire you pull the airplane into vertical and stroke the afterburners, let ’em light off, you count to three and then you just go away. Instant UFO reporting.”
Obviously pranksters get in on such acts. I recall some faking crop circles in the early '90s & impressing the media – but not the experts, who would point out the physical differences between the fakes and the real thing. So that's a red herring. Military authorities aren't ever likely to be fooled by time-wasters.
"…the real thing." Oh Dennis, isn't your inner skeptic twitching, just a little?
"Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles are suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human causation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle
I admire the creativity/artistry of some hoaxers, provided it’s all in good fun.
all crop circles are consistent with human causation
Seems like total crap to me. Written by the type of sceptic who is possessed by an inner ideological agenda. You know, the kind of person who is too lazy to check out evidence.
Not that I have. I just looked at the photos & read parts of the books at the time. So I arrived at an opinion based on pattern recognition. Neither true believer nor retard sceptic. Binary folk are ever so reluctant to categorise stuff into the maybe category, eh? That's due to being unable to conceive a third alternative.
Like me, a physics graduate, so he ought to have known better! We may be alone, we may not, so that third option exists until you collapse the wave function (via experimental detection).
Journalists who enquired of Clarke whether he was gay were told, "No, merely mildly cheerful."
However, Michael Moorcock wrote: "Everyone knew he was gay. In the 1950s, I'd go out drinking with his boyfriend."
"There are many theories about what creates crop circles, including aliens, mysterious vortices, time travelers and wind patterns, but they all lack one important element: good evidence. The only known cause of crop circles is humans. Perhaps one day a mysterious, unknown source will be discovered for crop circles, but until then perhaps they are best thought of as collective public art."
Radford, B. "Crop Circles Explained". LiveScience. [2017]
"Seems like total crap to me."
Like Radford, I’m all for keeping an open mind, but with past and present crop circle evidence pointing in one direction, we’ll have to agree to disagree re “total crap“.
Anticipating publication of another theory sometime soon: those crop circles in English fields that have been reported on & off since the Middle Ages (according to one researcher years ago) must have been done by wallabies travelling from Oz on ufos.
What bothered me was the perfect symmetry exhibited by the wheat stalks. Perhaps wallabies are capable of levitation? That would explain the lack of footprints within the circles. 🤩
Wallabies are not capable of levitation AFAIK but some birds are and then there is the flying squirrel, of course, which happened to be native to Europe and is nocturnal.
I'd bet there's some really interesting aerodynamics going on. Maybe something like each loop of the undulations generating lift off a specific part of a vortex shed from the loop ahead.
I hope you didn't think I included your good self in that categorisation! There's an immense difference between a sceptic with an open mind and one without, and, operating within the former category, I tend to see you as more likely to be in that camp.
Those wielding scepticism as an ideology are sufficiently robotic that you can read them from phraseology used, denial of existence of evidence, aversion to even looking for it, etc.
“Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
– Richard Feynman
Terence McKenna says it's the Japanese crop-circle tourists who make them; they're always there as soon as the circles appear (and before, nearby, waiting…) and act completely innocent when challenged. Cameras are the perfect excuse for being there and a lack of English language the perfect foil to interrogation. The precision of some of those crop-circles certainly points toward a culture of accuracy, elegance and attention to detail in the creators: the Japanese fit the bill!
I wasn't aware that I was claiming anything, John, but I think upon re-reading what I wrote that I can see why you thought so.
So to clarify: my perception of the difference between the fakes and the real thing is derived from the researchers plus the photos in their books, but I probably was too loose in the phrasing.
This is merely my personal impression we're talking about. Nothing to do with objective fact. And I don't rely on any single source – I scan the field & get an overview, a technique I acquired long ago. So my opinion re authenticity is not an assertion in the way you read it. I'm sorry to have used real thing in a way that may have implied whatever, when I just meant `no evidence of fakery apparent'. To differentiate those from the obvious fakes!
You are assuming that pentagon (especially air arm) officials see no advantage in a perceived techological "gap" between the USA and an unidentified neer-peer adversary.
After all, 60-70 years ago the "missile gap" resulted in budget cuts, right? But that had claims that were demonstrably false. These videos, released without comment, make no claims other than the subjects weren't conclusively and individually identified. Like, whose balloon was it? Obviously it's unidentified.
No, I agree that budget capture is a thing, and the US military hierarchy are masters of the art. It would be fair enough to then classify the senators as suckers – unless you'd rather deem them scamsters (ie operating as agents for the military), but that is probably more feasible for those with military corporations in their home state.
The only thing I deem is that there is nothing particularly novel or interesting about those films – the release of the footage and lack of classification of the objects is not proof of aliens, nor is it proof of a funding conspiracy, nor is it proof of haoxers, nor does it indicate that the pentagon merely declassifies shit without comment because it wants to keep the tinfoil hats at arm's length.
The general indications of the videos and the debunkers and the alternative theories is that the explanations for the content of those videos are incredibly banal. Why would I care to know or speculate beyond that, other than to respond to some obscurantist stupidity posted here?
If I were in their shoes (US military decision-makers & their pr hire) I'd reassure the public by making obscure videos available too! Heaven forbid they'd ever release the good ones!!
Anyway the point of the posting is the oscillating tendency of the US military & govt to create official UFO investigation orgs, wind them up some years or decades later, then do it all again in a different form…
Anyway the point of the posting is the oscillating tendency of the US military & govt to create official UFO investigation orgs, wind them up some years or decades later, then do it all again in a different form…
Really?
The new one seemed to be the subject of comment 10, but the point still seems to be elusive. Could you please express your point more clearly?
The news reported by CNN alerts us to a pattern of behaviour by the US military & govt: create official UFO investigations, terminate them a considerable time later, then recreate them in a somewhat different form some years after that.
Bureaucracy is like gardening – the well-tended plots have things come and go and regrow and pruning is done, preferably for the health of the plant rather than convoluted topiary.
Bureaucracy is like a tropical jungle, full of poisonous animals and plants (e.g. Triffid deskus), and easy to get lost in and die, never to be seen again.
Back when children did domestic chores every day, I received training from the patriarch & become proficient at pushing a mechanical mower around the lawn. Come the 1960s, we moved up-market & became fossil-fuel dependent local neighbourhood noise polluters.
Last year I told my neighbour I intend to eliminate my front lawn & gazed curiously at him to see how much he would freak out, but he rolled with it. Sam is cool. Electrical inspector & staunch Labour voter, but we shoot the breeze with political conversations often with no arguments. Maori but looks Greek patrician, talks more like a pakeha, and his property is immaculate!
So I get your point. Encultured control of nature is embedded as much as bureaucracy. I'm rewilding – but slowly enough to not spook the locals. My frogs have been in winter hibernation but have seen a couple medium-sized, almost black, moving now & then but not much. Wonder why they never croak (even in spring & summer)…
A scout troup were on a camp over the hills to the East of Paraparaumu at Camp Waghorn I think. One of the tasks was to build some hot air balloons out of tissue paper and fuelled with methylated spirits on cotton wool. Launched at night they drifted westwards over Paraparaumu. They were sighted by excited townsfolk. Police notified. Reports of figures looking out of portholes and craft as big as two football fields. Certain eyewitnesses. Until the lads went home on Sunday PM. Cover blown.
You have reminded me of the international ballyhoo over the UFO's seen in the night sky seaward of Kaikoura in 1978. Every now and them TV3 comes up with a re-run of the story, totally ignoring the explanation for the phenomena issued at the time by the Meteorological Service.
There was an intense anticyclone over the South Island and an inversion layer at about 2000 feet. On the surface and just beyond the 12 mile limit there was a Japanese fishing fleet. The lights from the fishing fleet was being reflected back at the point of the inversion layer as bright lights seemingly bobbing around the night sky. Sea must have been quite choppy.
What I can't figure out is why we sceptics never see the paranormal. The Kaikoura episode with Blenheim pilot Bill Startup brings back Bruce Cathie's leylines and Harmonic 33, and a local woman Moreland who saw a UFO there in 1959.
Seriously, I can identify with the startling sight of something inexplicable but evident to the eyes. Earlier this year looking at the night sky and then seeing travelling lights in a straight line was freaky, until I looked up online what was happening with a series of satellites……….
The individual experiences are often explained via optical illusions. The mass simultaneous sightings are usually ignored by sceptics due to being too hard to dismiss via this method.
I recall reading once about one such in Taupo, that happened in the 1950s. Think it made the newspaper, but what impressed me was the sheer number of eyewitness accounts that all told the same story.
Re Cathie's theory, I couldn't get my head into it, so I share the sceptic's view. Ley lines in Britain I'm agnostic about. Since they have a fair bit of physical correlates from the megalithic era, not just a personal fantasy of some nutcase.
except 10.2.1 was literally a mass sighting addressed by sceptics. They tend to be hyper-examined these days – e.g. the "missile" off California was examined exhaustively.
What "mass sightings" of ufos have been ignored? A taupo one in the 1950s deserves to be added to wikipedia.
On a related note, a while back I saw a joke chart that purported to show the incidence of miracles – consistantly high until photography was invented, then low and flat until photoshop was invented when it spiked up again. Same sort of thing applies to UFOs, I reckon.
Funnily, this sceptic has never been even part of a mass sighting. I did, though, find out as a young student on a ouija board that I could very subtly spell out all sorts of messages. Nearly cost me a relationship when my girlfriend finally sussed what I was doing………
Something similar happened to me in my first year at university: a group of us tried the ouija method & got mixed results. Some gibberish yet some words spelt out. After we gave up my old school friend & current flatmate admitted to the group that he had been steering the pointer. Taught me that the spirit of (scientific) enquiry is always vulnerable to being trumped by jokers…
Extremely upsetting to hear parent being part of the problem and spouting some very unpleasant Pasifika remarks with regards to the outbreak, and by extension, immigration in general. No amount of calling out and calmly challenging her thought process made any difference.
I'm more confused given she's a refugee herself, and is also disgusted by her father's anti-semetic views during the war when his Jewish neighbours were literally being carted off for extermination. It seems her own life experiences haven't produced tolerance. The only thing we seem to agree on is maybe it stems from her growing up in Australia at a time when racism/white superiority was actively encouraged and perhaps a bit of indoctrination that stuck.
Is there any point in continuing to reason with her?
build bridges and keep lines of communication open over time (if you can). Change doesn't have to happen in one conversation or debate, it can happen gradually, building on each previous discussion.
My experience in conservative communities was that keeping the relationship sound was just as important as any reasoning.
When worldometers is updated Australia's total deaths from Covid will be 652. The 'first wave' stopped at 102 so the July outbreak there has cost 550 lives so far.
…… the Victorian health department said Monday's deaths included 22 people who died in the weeks leading up to August 27 and were only reported to DHHS by aged-care facilities on Sunday.
Save those cute little bats, and their home territory for hundreds, thousands? of years, that nasty great humans are just preparing to rip away and colonise with their own kind.
That is such a familiar theme in our country – here in NZ where we like to say we are a developed, highly civilised country. But a query – what did we develop from and what, to? Have we been fooling ourselves – is there someone who can give a studied, balanced opinion out there (not Mike Hosking or others with their feet in the troughs out there overflowing with goodies that I've heard of)?
Why bother to save anything (sarc). Think how rich we could be by allowing what is unique to NZ die out and we are left with sparrows, Tahr, Wallibies, rabbits, rats etc
I'm not into saving anything. Habitat restoration and pest free islands then leave the mainland (plus Rakiura and Te Waipounamu) to mother nature. Love chilling on a river bank smothered with blossoming broom, watching the hares skittering, quail coveying, trout dimpling.
No maybe, ifs or buts. SkyCity is a private business with restrictions and not a public place as such. There are also CCTVs operating in prisons, which is an equally flawed comparison for this discussion. You are diverting, and this may be accidental, but now I have pointed it out to you, you have a conscious choice.
Ignore my point about SkyCity using facial recognition.
I just don't have an issue with the police using facial recognition if it catches bad people.
Yes, there may one or two cases of people using it for bad things, but the same could be argued for police having access to vehicle owners personal details from number plates at the push of a few buttons.
Matching vehicle ownership for licensing purposes, for example, is not quite the same as biometrics identification (and authorisation?), is it? A better comparison would be the use of fingerprints or the publication of photos taken in public.
It really helps to very clearly articulate the issue before launching (into) debate.
Well I have a lot of issues with nasty little authoritarian tribes like the cops running around and spying on people going about their normal daily business. What about the taking of photos at demo's – then later using these to discriminate against certain classes of people. Where are these cameras going to be and will there be a bias towards younger and lower skilled people being photographed.
As to catching bad people – they would need to CCTV far more executive workplaces , clubs , the roads to coromandel baches and exclusive restaurants to catch the real crooks who prey on society.
Then the traffic enforcement side – the costs of licences, rego's etc has soared compared to minimal wages and benefits. Little wonder that otherwise law abiding citizens slither around in not so legal cars – the costs are beyond them. If the legalise dope goes through then there is whole areas of enforcement that will no longer be needed. Looks like cops are going for some job protection there.
From my limited understanding of dealing with them. And it is pretty limited apart from someone trying to sell it,
It is anywhere where the cameras are up to spec' to be good enough to pick up the details needed visually by the software, used on the servers which controls the network of cameras.
Ie your average old camera from the 90s is probably a bit screwed, but new ones on the main black spots like Courtney Place where there are drunken fights or same sort of places in Auckland would probably be ok.
And obviously the thing looking at the cameras needs access two the visual in real time or it is a bit pointless, so public ones in this case.
Thank you for confirming my point. and no we do not need the attempted distraction of the type of camera.
Clearly your idea of a camera set up to catch a "bad guy" boils down to a public camera for low level street drug deals, some public drunkenness and a forgot to rego the car moment.
How about a few cameras that catch high income males in cafes assaulting female wait staff, issuing warrants to search journalists homes and insinuating to third parties that said journalists are being looked at for criminal reasons all of which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Street camera's won't catch the real crooks of society they will just be used to intimidate lawful people going about their lawful business.
What if the cops become bad people and set out to catch good people. It is important to try and care about surveillance, loss of personal freedom if you are commenting on a leftish blog Chris T.
If we are going to do hypotheticals I can come up with doozys
What if [name deleted; against TS policy] got away that day and the to catch him was through facial CCTV facial recognition?
Look I agree there will be bad cops like in every other profession, and a couple may even take advantage of it, that is a security issue for the police, but they already have way more access to private info' through other methods like vehicle registration etc, tracing phone movements with a warrant, to the point that I really can't see facial recognition making a difference to privacy.
If they start talking about bugging peoples phones and planting tracking devices on peoples cars I would be concerned. But this. Not really.
It is happening all over the world as part of policing, in airports, casinos as mentioned earlier etc (Yes I know these aren't public places)
[Some hypotheticals are just a bad idea – Incognito]
Again you confirm that there is far too much access by cops to private data in an unregulated way already. And the few bad cops – get real we have a continuing trickle of stories roast busters, Hager and other journalists, computer hacking investigations, illegal traffic stops to get information, tooling up and running around doing traffic stops like they are in a war zone and that's just what we know about .. that's just more than the odd bad egg it's a systemic problem that needs dealing with.
Nor is it correct to conflate such things as phone hacking which should need a warrant to the unrestricted unsupervised collection of public data using facial recognition of citizens doing absolutely nothing wrong as they go about their lawful daily lives.
and yes a lot of stuff is collected in non public spaces and again should we be ruling more fully against some of this.
Just remember the police work for us as a society not for some right wing authoritarian clique.
I like No Right Turn – it often has interesting information that is picked up much later by other media, but at other times it is frustrating in its blatant partisanship:
National often claims that the government has failed because an element of party policy put forward before the election has not been achieved and that this represents a failure of government – and the policy is of course always represented as a promise, so according to National it is a "broken promise." We know that a three party government does require compromises, but these do not always represent failure by the party or party that wants something to happen; it may represent a ''victory" for the third party. Also of course there are some policies which are overtaken by events (covid for example?) or where other priorities mean something gets lower than desired priority.
In this case NRT is talking about a "failure'' by the Green Party and Labour – not a failure of government. We need to remember this going into an election campaign; we collectively get what we collectively vote for…
Sadly NRT does not accept comments – fair enough as far as the time it clearly takes on The Standard to keep discussion civil and weed out the nutters; but for a blog that clearly supports some Green policies to blame the government for the need for consensus that is a fundamental part of that government is somewhat short sighted – despite problems I believe that a smaller party like the Green Party does have legitimate views; I do not want voters to think that it is only worth voting for Labour or National.
IS at NRT used to accept comments a long time ago. He shut it down because he prefers to write rather than deal with the ignorant dipshits who used to write most of the comments. I think that he stopped about 2006 or 7
It was pity because the comments were often as good as the posts.
A terrible look for Judith Collins here. Corrupt husband and chief Kauri stump digger David Wong tung has taken to posting misogynist memes about the Prime Minister.
You are well known for not recognising misogyny. One clue is in the use of the name "Cindy" which minimises and trivialises the PM, and all women, really.
Also worrying for Collins is the second one retweeted there by her apparently unruly husband is watermarked “the BFD” which is Slater’s vehicle. He set it up after claiming he had a stroke in order to avoid paying his debtors from the failed WOBF.
Collins has had a cosy relationship with Slater through the years, using him to conduct Dirty Politics. That relationship also contributed to her fall from grace and generally highlighted her and her husband’s corrupt nature.
It's actually less IMO about Jacinda Ardern who just gets one vote & given a raft of slights that most of the public have not had to witness, and would be rightly appalled by, this is how the public will view the LOTO. Regardless of her trying to dismiss it & perhaps suggesting NZers can't "take a joke" or a bit of levity it goes to the core of showing two faces to the public, one that's relatively benign and the other that is a relationship with a nasty and dismissive view of wider NZ
But What About Judith's personal responsibility for the poor personal choice of 41 years ago? Isn't that what the RW says to single mothers struggling to bring up the kids? They made a poor personal choice to have kids with someone so need to be pounded by the right?
Could you imagine the uproar if first bloke was doing anything like this? but he's far too sensible.
Collins shrugs and claims she can't do anything about it. This is an admission she endorses it. If she felt it was damaging she could say to her husband, "you are hurting my career, please stop". But she won't because she doesn't believe he is hurting her career.
Or, she told him to stfu and he didn't and it's better for her to make light of it in public. Her husband sounds like a total dick, and her point about not being able to control him seems potentially true.
Bring it on. The more he tweets the more the election will be a referendum on Judith Collins' relationship with her husband. If she can't control him, how can she control a cabinet?
" If you’ve got the secret to how you control a man who is 64 years old, used to play a lot of rugby and was a policeman, good luck and let me know,” Judith said.
"“He is one of the least sexist men I know, he is married to me, how could he be sexist?” Collins said."
“He is an adult, he will make his own decisions and let’s put it this way, I don't have to answer for him because I have not been able to control him in 41 years."
"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz." and in the river and on its banks at the foot of my garden there are nests which produce cygnets and ducklings, little kawau and pukeko, tiny scaup and paradise shelducks, so I know 'where the birdies is." Life is indeed good.
Full moon as far as I can see tonight. 21 degrees today in Gisborne on the last day of winter. First day of chafing for me.
Why don't I think of myself as a manual worker? Yet by all measures I am for 34 years. I feel I'm posturing since I'm middle class and my real life is in my head.
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
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PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
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Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 8 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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You can stick people into two groups. Those who comply and those don't. Those who comply do so for their own safety and the safety of others. They do so for the greater collective good. Those who don't don't comply feel they themselves are the most important unit and will break any rule which suggests otherwise. These people are from the political right.
Because SARS – CoV 2 favours the non-complying group I comply. I wear a mask, wash my hands, physically distance and avoid crowds, try to stay as healthy as I can – easier for some than others.
"This metasynthesis provides among the most compelling evidence to date that personality predicts overall health and well-being."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28277701/
Plenty of people that would otherwise be progressive who aren't following the rules. We ignore this and make it a partisan issue at out peril.
Be interesting to hear the range of reasons why. Presumably our media will vox pop that for us.
In the past weeks own south people seem pretty relaxed about L2, basically not really doing much. More Q codes visible, some manual lists to sign, signs telling people to keep their distance, but while people are aware I guess, seems like it's a bit lax. Presumably because most people think there's no covid here. I assume people are allowed to leave Auckland now so hopefully that perception will change.
There's also the anti-authoritarian crowd.
She’ll be right, mate.
lol, not sure it's *quite that bad.
Anyone know why 900 state houses in Porirua were handed over to iwi, even though the government promised to put an end to privatisation of state housing?
Ref: https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/122560292/ngti-toa-will-take-its-land-back-and-bring-its-people-home-iwi-ceo-says
Probably part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement and I would not call handing these houses over to Iwi to administer privatisation. Meeting of a treaty settlement is paramount I would have thought. What owners do then is the same as any other owner whose land has been taken. Some handing back is subject to restrictions but I am not sure if this part of the Treaty claim was.
I am looking forward to the time when Paraparaumu airport, taken for Defence purposes around the time of WW2 and the Iwi never compensated, is handed back.
Iwi aren't private businesses, they're Treaty partners with the Crown.
Any shareholder owned organisation that's accumulating and reinvesting virtually all returns from invested settlement assets is by definition a private business.
Iwi have businesses (like the government), but they're not businesses. The Pākehā system forced Māori to adopt Iwi legal structures that suited Pākehā, but Iwi themselves predate any modern concept of business by a long time.
And does or should this overly technical approach by Joe90 override the fact that these settlements endeavour to bring the Iwi into a situation that they should have been had the Treaty of Waitangi breach not occurred.
I think not.
As Weka has said these are our Treaty partners, they have been badly treated in cases where Maori land has been taken for Public Works such as housing, roads, schools etc etc. and most have chosen a range or mix of former crown assets and $$$ to settle their grievances. It is mean-spirited not to allow Iwi to conduct their own commercial operations. Some of these ops have meant that Iwi does the managing eg Ngai Tahu and others the managing has been done by the former Govt dept.
If land owned by the Crown is not going to be in the mix, and Iwi want productive land as part of their settlement then the Treaty Settlements will stall big time.
I think to define the use of assets returned under Treaty settlements as private business is simplistic. To trammel the return of assets to Iwi with strictures on future use risks setting up yet another ToW claim. There are crown assets such as particular reserves that are not available for sale that are passed over to Iwi control.
Possibly it is a lack of knowledge about what the meaning of being a treaty partner is that has led to these mystifying picky comments
I would suggest that readers look at some of these settlements
Ngati Toa's is here
https://www.govt.nz/treaty-settlement-documents/ngati-toa-rangatira/
It is instructive to read some of the happenings and the beautiful language that has been used in these settlement documents
https://www.govt.nz/assets/Documents/OTS/Ngati-Toa-Rangatira/Ngati-Toa-Rangatira-Deed-of-Settlement-7-Dec-2012.pdf
Some of us who were around in Govt Depts when the full force of the Rogernomics was upon us will recall that it was only the intervention of our Treaty partner, by and through the NZ Maori Council taking Court cases, that some of the worst land related affects such as the proposal to sell the land under the trees as well as the forest crops were tossed out. Ordinary NZers had no ability to seek any stop to the tidal wave of Rogernomics that was going on. There were several cases other than the Forestry one where they over turned what had been proposed. Our Treaty partners have stepped up many times over the years since 1840, and it behoves us to treat their claims in a generous and fair-spirited way.
MP Jami-Lee Ross referred to committee over anti-vaccination video.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300094071/mp-jamilee-ross-referred-to-committee-over-antivaccination-video?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
"The Speaker has referred independent MP Jami-Lee Ross to the Privileges Committee for misusing edited parliamentary TV video for political ads.
"Trevor Mallard ordered the anti-vaccination video – posted by Ross's party and that of Billy Te Kahika's NZ Public Party – to be removed from social media, but that's been met with a blunt refusal.
Parliamentary footage of an exchange between government minister Megan Woods and National's Erica Stanford was edited for use in the political ad, posted on several sites."
Yeah I wonder why we can't force the main internet players twitter facebook etc to have a "local office" so that when something like this comes along they can easily be contacted so that at the very least it can be labeled "false" or "edited"or taken down fast rather than going through some offshore process.
Just heard this ad on RNZ,
!!!!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018761552/how-a-digital-inclusion-policy-is-widening-the-inequality-gap
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300094308/the-detail-kiwis-are-suffering-from-digital-exclusion
Yes, it is certainly time for government to declare that being connected is a right and then ensure that the means exist for people to fulfil that right without being ripped off by private enterprise.
In other words, time to re-nationalise telecommunications and to produce capable phones and PCs here in NZ also by a government owned production process.
This is a very real problem with both government and private sector. There are whole communities that are effectively excluded.
I've stayed offline because I can't be bothered with the being hacked bit plus I have the ability to complain loudly – which not everyone has.
The government needs to sort its act out for starters. Any government fee or charge should be capable of being paid on the ground with no extra charge or fee payable – that is far from the current situation. Nor should costs and access be pushed sideways onto community organisations libraries funded by ratepayers etc.
There is also the major secondary discrimination- there are government jobs that cannot be applied for unless a real me id is used. Citizen tracking by default.
edit
There is a major and obvious question here, so obvious that nobody has thought to ask it. Did the citizens get asked if they agreed to have government retreat from face to face dealings, to only communicating with citizens through machines? Was it right that such swingeing changes were enabled by a handful of anarchists? Were taxpayers advised that lower taxes meant limited human input into dealing with citizens?
Were people enabled to discuss the result of withdrawal of government from the ordering of people's lives and that elections and ministers in government were becoming less and less true agents of the people? Perhaps if there wasn't so much hype about how marvellous it is, and truthfulness instead of truthiness about this bloody technological takeover and its constant expansion with obsolescence designed in, people might see things as they are, not rosy at all.
Addlepated* is a great word for the quandary we are in. Google quickly finds all I need to know to describe the poor state we and our state are in. I don't think that is quixotic (extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.)
* In Middle English an adel eye was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an adel eye (or addle egg as it came to be called in modern English) and an empty, confused head—or pate. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addlepated
I want government back – with real people, and all channels open to all citizens., on-line plus traditional. I think that we need to reorganise Parliament though, and all people who work for government have to have a skill or profession that they have worked at adequately for five years before applying for government jobs.
Thankee for addlepated. 'Fun with words' is our non-lasting legacy. 10,000 of agriculture and 270 of industry.
JLR openly goes the false news route, gets caught and claims he's being 'censored' in an election campaign.
The apple doesn't fall far from the dirty politics tree does it.
JLR published an EDITED video.
Isn't “careful” selection of another's words a form of censorship?
lol.
Actually, its outright lying. Same as what National did the other day.
So, yeah, more proof that we need to make the publication and broadcasting of lies and misinformation illegal. Especially in politics.
@millsy 2 (reply not working etc, etc)
Did you read the article? The land the houses are on are part of a treaty settlement that was concluded in 2014.
Corin Dan this morning commenting (to Phil Goff I think) that the poor messaging that asked South and West Aucklanders to get tested "muddied the waters" on the country's response and then goes on to ask questions that invite others to muddy the messaging even further.
The PM on TVNZ this morning sensibly sidestepped a question about opening the borders because of "business". If she had addressed it, anything she said would be used to muddy the country's response at the moment. The best response for the economy is a health response. What is the sharemarket doing at the moment? Is the MSM banging on about it?
It has been down.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/122599368/hell-to-pay-from-kiwisaver-managers-if-nzx-doesnt-get-on-top-of-cyberattacks
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It is actually not funny.
Edit: it is still happening FFS!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122611626/stock-market-website-crashes-but-trading-continues-without-a-blip-nzx-says
The thing about Distributed Denial of Service Attacks is they are often (always?) done by people activating Bot Nets.
"
A botnet is a logical collection of Internet-connected devices such as computers, smartphones or IoT devices whose security have been breached and control ceded to a third party. Each compromised device, known as a "bot", is created when a device is penetrated by software from a malware (malicious software) distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels formed by standards-based network protocols, such as IRC and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[3][4]
Botnets are increasingly rented out by cyber criminals as commodities for a variety of purposes.[5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet
Why isn't more done to help people improve security of their systems to avoid them becoming part of a BotNet?
[This comment was held up in Pre-Moderation because it contains too many hyperlinks]
See my Moderation note @ 12:15 PM.
@ Muttonbird 1
Those who are not complying with wearing a mask the reasons why not would need to be known. Wise to wear a mask and not a team player if not wearing a mask.
I have a goal of making 500 cloth masks and donating them where needed. I will even cut extra elastic for ear loops and safety pin it on the mask as the elastic may wear due to a hot soapy hand wash.
I feel that a new cluster could only be a day away anywhere.
Why is a Samsung phone not working to reply?
Reply function doesn't work on iPad either.. my guess is some mobile browsers have trouble rendering the fancy comment box
Lprent is aware of the issue and working on it. You can try switching between mobile and desktop versions, sometimes that helps.
Another Auckland CCO failure. Not Watercare, this time it's POAL. Not content with shitting on Aucklanders by building a bloody great carpark in the middle of the harbour, Ports of Auckland is an exploitative employer as well.
The next government needs to take a serious look at the corporate model of governance for public utilities. The profit motive does not deliver for the people, only a bunch of MBA executives whose only skills are "cost" cutting and bullshit.
https://twitter.com/labourcartel/status/1300155354714570752?s=20
There also more than a whiff that POA (or Tauranga) was the source of the Auckland outbreak.
Are you sure it's not this incident which did circulate on SM before it came to light officially?
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/250672-tauranga-port-worker-covid19-claim-hoax.html
No. Just that massive port and truckie testing drive a few weeks ago. And the fact the Auckland outbreak is still sourced to Americold.
They still came up with nothing but a possible theory: Foreign crew member > stevedore > truck-driver > Americold worker. These people generally work (and have smoke breaks) in close contact so I wonder if there was a bit of mixing going on which shouldn't have happened.
I've had thoughts often re Americool as their Melbourne branch apparently had 2 cases a fortnight earlier – I know they dismiss it but seeing how some things are packed and that it can withstand cold surely is not just coincidence.
Around August 15th through 18th there was a big fluffy of articles about Americold Melbourne covid cases getting genome sequenced.
I have yet to find anything explicitly saying the genomes were different to the B.1.1.1 strain in the outbreak here, but I think it's safe to assume that if the Melbourne cases were also B.1.1.1 we would have heard all about it.
Over the last thirty odd years we've seen that the profit motive always brings about the worst possible response and does not meet the needs of the community.
Tony Gibson again, "Their health is our number one concern." Sure it is, mate. Sure it is. This guy was an arsehole all through the strikes, and he's still an arsehole.
It's deja vu all over again, again: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/13/politics/pentagon-ufo-task-force/index.html
You can understand how distressing it must be when your top guns get left flat-footed all the time. Hard to be macho. The hormones just stop flowing.
Yeah, those camera flares are a serious national security threat.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/explained-new-navy-ufo-videos.11234/
If US intelligence would only learn from random website entrepreneurs posing as tech expert theoreticians, instead of believing what defense personnel & hotshot pilots saw, everyone would live happily ever after… 👽
Hotshot pilots with a penchant for trolling those who want to believe.
Obviously pranksters get in on such acts. I recall some faking crop circles in the early '90s & impressing the media – but not the experts, who would point out the physical differences between the fakes and the real thing. So that's a red herring. Military authorities aren't ever likely to be fooled by time-wasters.
Military authorities aren't ever likely to be fooled by time-wasters.
I'm rendered utterly speechless by that statement, so I'll just spend a while basking in the gloriousness of the worldview that produced it.
Be my guest, but I'd go with gloriosity… 😎
"…the real thing." Oh Dennis, isn't your inner skeptic twitching, just a little?
I admire the creativity/artistry of some hoaxers, provided it’s all in good fun.
all crop circles are consistent with human causation
Seems like total crap to me. Written by the type of sceptic who is possessed by an inner ideological agenda. You know, the kind of person who is too lazy to check out evidence.
Not that I have. I just looked at the photos & read parts of the books at the time. So I arrived at an opinion based on pattern recognition. Neither true believer nor retard sceptic. Binary folk are ever so reluctant to categorise stuff into the maybe category, eh? That's due to being unable to conceive a third alternative.
Like me, a physics graduate, so he ought to have known better! We may be alone, we may not, so that third option exists until you collapse the wave function (via experimental detection).
"There are many theories about what creates crop circles, including aliens, mysterious vortices, time travelers and wind patterns, but they all lack one important element: good evidence. The only known cause of crop circles is humans. Perhaps one day a mysterious, unknown source will be discovered for crop circles, but until then perhaps they are best thought of as collective public art."
Radford, B. "Crop Circles Explained". LiveScience. [2017]
Like Radford, I’m all for keeping an open mind, but with past and present crop circle evidence pointing in one direction, we’ll have to agree to disagree re “total crap“.
" but not the experts, who would point out the physical differences between the fakes and the real thing "
There are no real crop circles. They are all man made
Incorrect.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/crop-circles-stoned-wallabies_n_916196
Never heard of Black Swans either?
Anticipating publication of another theory sometime soon: those crop circles in English fields that have been reported on & off since the Middle Ages (according to one researcher years ago) must have been done by wallabies travelling from Oz on ufos.
What bothered me was the perfect symmetry exhibited by the wheat stalks. Perhaps wallabies are capable of levitation? That would explain the lack of footprints within the circles. 🤩
Wallabies are not capable of levitation AFAIK but some birds are and then there is the flying squirrel, of course, which happened to be native to Europe and is nocturnal.
I've got a soft spot for flying snakes.
Cool!
I'd bet there's some really interesting aerodynamics going on. Maybe something like each loop of the undulations generating lift off a specific part of a vortex shed from the loop ahead.
First 'reported' by the BBC in June 2009; for ‘true believers‘ only – it's enough to make a "retard sceptic" weep (with laughter.)
We need more laughter in this world.
I hope you didn't think I included your good self in that categorisation! There's an immense difference between a sceptic with an open mind and one without, and, operating within the former category, I tend to see you as more likely to be in that camp.
Those wielding scepticism as an ideology are sufficiently robotic that you can read them from phraseology used, denial of existence of evidence, aversion to even looking for it, etc.
Phew, that's a relief
Curiosity & skepticism: a knockout combination for researchers IMO.
https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~rikblok/wiki/doku.php?id=science:the_curious_skeptic#curiosity_and_skepticism
“Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
– Richard Feynman
Curiosity & scepticism are the foundation of and for all learning. Otherwise, we would still be living in grottos.
Mere conjecture. No proof offered.
Terence McKenna says it's the Japanese crop-circle tourists who make them; they're always there as soon as the circles appear (and before, nearby, waiting…) and act completely innocent when challenged. Cameras are the perfect excuse for being there and a lack of English language the perfect foil to interrogation. The precision of some of those crop-circles certainly points toward a culture of accuracy, elegance and attention to detail in the creators: the Japanese fit the bill!
Good theory. Levitating Japanese wallabies is even better tho. 🤩
" Mere conjecture. No proof offered."
It's you lacking the proof, sir. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and it isn't up to me – you made the claim, you back it up
I wasn't aware that I was claiming anything, John, but I think upon re-reading what I wrote that I can see why you thought so.
So to clarify: my perception of the difference between the fakes and the real thing is derived from the researchers plus the photos in their books, but I probably was too loose in the phrasing.
This is merely my personal impression we're talking about. Nothing to do with objective fact. And I don't rely on any single source – I scan the field & get an overview, a technique I acquired long ago. So my opinion re authenticity is not an assertion in the way you read it. I'm sorry to have used real thing in a way that may have implied whatever, when I just meant `no evidence of fakery apparent'. To differentiate those from the obvious fakes!
You are assuming that pentagon (especially air arm) officials see no advantage in a perceived techological "gap" between the USA and an unidentified neer-peer adversary.
After all, 60-70 years ago the "missile gap" resulted in budget cuts, right? But that had claims that were demonstrably false. These videos, released without comment, make no claims other than the subjects weren't conclusively and individually identified. Like, whose balloon was it? Obviously it's unidentified.
No, I agree that budget capture is a thing, and the US military hierarchy are masters of the art. It would be fair enough to then classify the senators as suckers – unless you'd rather deem them scamsters (ie operating as agents for the military), but that is probably more feasible for those with military corporations in their home state.
Dude, I don't deem them to be anything.
The only thing I deem is that there is nothing particularly novel or interesting about those films – the release of the footage and lack of classification of the objects is not proof of aliens, nor is it proof of a funding conspiracy, nor is it proof of haoxers, nor does it indicate that the pentagon merely declassifies shit without comment because it wants to keep the tinfoil hats at arm's length.
The general indications of the videos and the debunkers and the alternative theories is that the explanations for the content of those videos are incredibly banal. Why would I care to know or speculate beyond that, other than to respond to some obscurantist stupidity posted here?
If I were in their shoes (US military decision-makers & their pr hire) I'd reassure the public by making obscure videos available too! Heaven forbid they'd ever release the good ones!!
Anyway the point of the posting is the oscillating tendency of the US military & govt to create official UFO investigation orgs, wind them up some years or decades later, then do it all again in a different form…
Really?
The new one seemed to be the subject of comment 10, but the point still seems to be elusive. Could you please express your point more clearly?
The news reported by CNN alerts us to a pattern of behaviour by the US military & govt: create official UFO investigations, terminate them a considerable time later, then recreate them in a somewhat different form some years after that.
Bureaucracy is like gardening – the well-tended plots have things come and go and regrow and pruning is done, preferably for the health of the plant rather than convoluted topiary.
Bureaucracy is like a tropical jungle, full of poisonous animals and plants (e.g. Triffid deskus), and easy to get lost in and die, never to be seen again.
There are those who prefer open lawns over native jungle or forest. But remember -heavily rolled and mown non-pastoral, decorative lawns were adopted by the powerful to demonstrate their power. 🙂
It's like a magic money tree.
Back when children did domestic chores every day, I received training from the patriarch & become proficient at pushing a mechanical mower around the lawn. Come the 1960s, we moved up-market & became fossil-fuel dependent local neighbourhood noise polluters.
Last year I told my neighbour I intend to eliminate my front lawn & gazed curiously at him to see how much he would freak out, but he rolled with it. Sam is cool. Electrical inspector & staunch Labour voter, but we shoot the breeze with political conversations often with no arguments. Maori but looks Greek patrician, talks more like a pakeha, and his property is immaculate!
So I get your point. Encultured control of nature is embedded as much as bureaucracy. I'm rewilding – but slowly enough to not spook the locals. My frogs have been in winter hibernation but have seen a couple medium-sized, almost black, moving now & then but not much. Wonder why they never croak (even in spring & summer)…
Rewilding, Dennis!?!
He nui te tautoko!
His voice betrayed no guile to my ears.
I used to see UFOs all the time in my garden until somebody pointed out to me that they were Tui.
A scout troup were on a camp over the hills to the East of Paraparaumu at Camp Waghorn I think. One of the tasks was to build some hot air balloons out of tissue paper and fuelled with methylated spirits on cotton wool. Launched at night they drifted westwards over Paraparaumu. They were sighted by excited townsfolk. Police notified. Reports of figures looking out of portholes and craft as big as two football fields. Certain eyewitnesses. Until the lads went home on Sunday PM. Cover blown.
Those balloons were box shaped about 600mm high.
The Yes vote will be high in Paraparaumu in the upcoming referendum, undoubtedly.
You have reminded me of the international ballyhoo over the UFO's seen in the night sky seaward of Kaikoura in 1978. Every now and them TV3 comes up with a re-run of the story, totally ignoring the explanation for the phenomena issued at the time by the Meteorological Service.
There was an intense anticyclone over the South Island and an inversion layer at about 2000 feet. On the surface and just beyond the 12 mile limit there was a Japanese fishing fleet. The lights from the fishing fleet was being reflected back at the point of the inversion layer as bright lights seemingly bobbing around the night sky. Sea must have been quite choppy.
Jeez what a fun grinch, Anne.
Do you go to play-centres and tell the kids Santa isn't real as well?
What I can't figure out is why we sceptics never see the paranormal. The Kaikoura episode with Blenheim pilot Bill Startup brings back Bruce Cathie's leylines and Harmonic 33, and a local woman Moreland who saw a UFO there in 1959.
Seriously, I can identify with the startling sight of something inexplicable but evident to the eyes. Earlier this year looking at the night sky and then seeing travelling lights in a straight line was freaky, until I looked up online what was happening with a series of satellites……….
The individual experiences are often explained via optical illusions. The mass simultaneous sightings are usually ignored by sceptics due to being too hard to dismiss via this method.
I recall reading once about one such in Taupo, that happened in the 1950s. Think it made the newspaper, but what impressed me was the sheer number of eyewitness accounts that all told the same story.
Re Cathie's theory, I couldn't get my head into it, so I share the sceptic's view. Ley lines in Britain I'm agnostic about. Since they have a fair bit of physical correlates from the megalithic era, not just a personal fantasy of some nutcase.
except 10.2.1 was literally a mass sighting addressed by sceptics. They tend to be hyper-examined these days – e.g. the "missile" off California was examined exhaustively.
What "mass sightings" of ufos have been ignored? A taupo one in the 1950s deserves to be added to wikipedia.
On a related note, a while back I saw a joke chart that purported to show the incidence of miracles – consistantly high until photography was invented, then low and flat until photoshop was invented when it spiked up again. Same sort of thing applies to UFOs, I reckon.
Funnily, this sceptic has never been even part of a mass sighting. I did, though, find out as a young student on a ouija board that I could very subtly spell out all sorts of messages. Nearly cost me a relationship when my girlfriend finally sussed what I was doing………
Something similar happened to me in my first year at university: a group of us tried the ouija method & got mixed results. Some gibberish yet some words spelt out. After we gave up my old school friend & current flatmate admitted to the group that he had been steering the pointer. Taught me that the spirit of (scientific) enquiry is always vulnerable to being trumped by jokers…
Worked night shifts off and on for thick end of 40 years including outside work, never seen anything not explained by science.
gsay Hah Lol
The plane that reported the Kaikoura UFO is now a cafe parked opposite the Blenheim Airport.
Several police officers were handing out free disposable masks at the Wellington station.
This is the way.
The red balloon over the harbour was a spectacle, they said.
Extremely upsetting to hear parent being part of the problem and spouting some very unpleasant Pasifika remarks with regards to the outbreak, and by extension, immigration in general. No amount of calling out and calmly challenging her thought process made any difference.
I'm more confused given she's a refugee herself, and is also disgusted by her father's anti-semetic views during the war when his Jewish neighbours were literally being carted off for extermination. It seems her own life experiences haven't produced tolerance. The only thing we seem to agree on is maybe it stems from her growing up in Australia at a time when racism/white superiority was actively encouraged and perhaps a bit of indoctrination that stuck.
Is there any point in continuing to reason with her?
build bridges and keep lines of communication open over time (if you can). Change doesn't have to happen in one conversation or debate, it can happen gradually, building on each previous discussion.
My experience in conservative communities was that keeping the relationship sound was just as important as any reasoning.
What does this comment relate to?
I took it to be about an offline conversation.
"Is there any point in continuing to reason with her?"
Only for as long as you have the energy to.
Can you please put up a link, we don't know what you are referring to.
Apologies, it was a phone conversation this morning so no link.
Just a shock my otherwise very liberal mother has an extremely racist streak
Offense is only ever offered, it is over to you if you want to take it.
Try looking at where you have commonalities.
Plus, it is yr Mum…different generations, different experiences, different expectations.
Tell her to criticise government policy, not people just trying to make a life for their families
41 Covid deaths in Melbourne today.
When worldometers is updated Australia's total deaths from Covid will be 652. The 'first wave' stopped at 102 so the July outbreak there has cost 550 lives so far.
Hawaii should be a major heads-up for us, too.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/30/hawaii-coronavirus-cautionary-tale-404564
Lazy sensationalist headline from the Herald.
…… the Victorian health department said Monday's deaths included 22 people who died in the weeks leading up to August 27 and were only reported to DHHS by aged-care facilities on Sunday.
Which is why it can be helpful to look at rolling (moving) averages such as 3- or 7-day average.
What was the headline? You haven't linked to it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424837/fight-to-protect-hamilton-s-rare-bats-heads-to-environment-court
Save those cute little bats, and their home territory for hundreds, thousands? of years, that nasty great humans are just preparing to rip away and colonise with their own kind.
That is such a familiar theme in our country – here in NZ where we like to say we are a developed, highly civilised country. But a query – what did we develop from and what, to? Have we been fooling ourselves – is there someone who can give a studied, balanced opinion out there (not Mike Hosking or others with their feet in the troughs out there overflowing with goodies that I've heard of)?
Why bother to save anything (sarc). Think how rich we could be by allowing what is unique to NZ die out and we are left with sparrows, Tahr, Wallibies, rabbits, rats etc
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/118303821/housing-development-protects-long-tailed-bats-as-well-as-housing-people
I'm not into saving anything. Habitat restoration and pest free islands then leave the mainland (plus Rakiura and Te Waipounamu) to mother nature. Love chilling on a river bank smothered with blossoming broom, watching the hares skittering, quail coveying, trout dimpling.
Set the wilding-pines free!
Police evasiveness, facial-recognition cameras, No Right Turn.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424845/police-setting-up-9m-facial-recognition-system-which-can-identify-people-from-cctv-feed
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/08/if-police-think-this-is-lawful-and.html
Bit of a non thing IMHO.
Places like SkyCity use it already, so if it helps the cops catch bad people who cares?
Maybe the people who get affected when the system is misused?
SkyCity is at Victoria Street, it is not Victoria Street. In other words, your comment contains a false equivalence.
Maybe.
And maybe I am just a drone, willing to be lead.
But I don't really see it as different from finger prints, and DNA records from crim's
They actually have to know who you are for the thing to work.
No maybe, ifs or buts. SkyCity is a private business with restrictions and not a public place as such. There are also CCTVs operating in prisons, which is an equally flawed comparison for this discussion. You are diverting, and this may be accidental, but now I have pointed it out to you, you have a conscious choice.
Apologies.
I was meaning the facial recognition.
The CCTV bit is irrelevant as they are every where
Yes, what about it?
Let me put it another way.
Ignore my point about SkyCity using facial recognition.
I just don't have an issue with the police using facial recognition if it catches bad people.
Yes, there may one or two cases of people using it for bad things, but the same could be argued for police having access to vehicle owners personal details from number plates at the push of a few buttons.
Ok, thanks.
Matching vehicle ownership for licensing purposes, for example, is not quite the same as biometrics identification (and authorisation?), is it? A better comparison would be the use of fingerprints or the publication of photos taken in public.
It really helps to very clearly articulate the issue before launching (into) debate.
Well I have a lot of issues with nasty little authoritarian tribes like the cops running around and spying on people going about their normal daily business. What about the taking of photos at demo's – then later using these to discriminate against certain classes of people. Where are these cameras going to be and will there be a bias towards younger and lower skilled people being photographed.
As to catching bad people – they would need to CCTV far more executive workplaces , clubs , the roads to coromandel baches and exclusive restaurants to catch the real crooks who prey on society.
Then the traffic enforcement side – the costs of licences, rego's etc has soared compared to minimal wages and benefits. Little wonder that otherwise law abiding citizens slither around in not so legal cars – the costs are beyond them. If the legalise dope goes through then there is whole areas of enforcement that will no longer be needed. Looks like cops are going for some job protection there.
RedBaronCV
From my limited understanding of dealing with them. And it is pretty limited apart from someone trying to sell it,
It is anywhere where the cameras are up to spec' to be good enough to pick up the details needed visually by the software, used on the servers which controls the network of cameras.
Ie your average old camera from the 90s is probably a bit screwed, but new ones on the main black spots like Courtney Place where there are drunken fights or same sort of places in Auckland would probably be ok.
And obviously the thing looking at the cameras needs access two the visual in real time or it is a bit pointless, so public ones in this case.
Thank you for confirming my point. and no we do not need the attempted distraction of the type of camera.
Clearly your idea of a camera set up to catch a "bad guy" boils down to a public camera for low level street drug deals, some public drunkenness and a forgot to rego the car moment.
How about a few cameras that catch high income males in cafes assaulting female wait staff, issuing warrants to search journalists homes and insinuating to third parties that said journalists are being looked at for criminal reasons all of which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Street camera's won't catch the real crooks of society they will just be used to intimidate lawful people going about their lawful business.
Sorry RBC, but think we might have to agree to disagree on this one.
An example. Some piece of scum king hits some innocent down Courtney Place, and does a runner.
The dude/dudette king hit smashes their head into the ground while falling and dies.
If all the police have is footage of the scums face, I would prefer them to be able to identify them as easily as possible.
Apologies, my comment on real time, was probably a bit too short sighted after thinking about it more.
What if the cops become bad people and set out to catch good people. It is important to try and care about surveillance, loss of personal freedom if you are commenting on a leftish blog Chris T.
If we are going to do hypotheticals I can come up with doozys
What if [name deleted; against TS policy] got away that day and the to catch him was through facial CCTV facial recognition?
Look I agree there will be bad cops like in every other profession, and a couple may even take advantage of it, that is a security issue for the police, but they already have way more access to private info' through other methods like vehicle registration etc, tracing phone movements with a warrant, to the point that I really can't see facial recognition making a difference to privacy.
If they start talking about bugging peoples phones and planting tracking devices on peoples cars I would be concerned. But this. Not really.
It is happening all over the world as part of policing, in airports, casinos as mentioned earlier etc (Yes I know these aren't public places)
[Some hypotheticals are just a bad idea – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 9:01 PM.
Fair call
I apologise
Again you confirm that there is far too much access by cops to private data in an unregulated way already. And the few bad cops – get real we have a continuing trickle of stories roast busters, Hager and other journalists, computer hacking investigations, illegal traffic stops to get information, tooling up and running around doing traffic stops like they are in a war zone and that's just what we know about .. that's just more than the odd bad egg it's a systemic problem that needs dealing with.
Nor is it correct to conflate such things as phone hacking which should need a warrant to the unrestricted unsupervised collection of public data using facial recognition of citizens doing absolutely nothing wrong as they go about their lawful daily lives.
and yes a lot of stuff is collected in non public spaces and again should we be ruling more fully against some of this.
Just remember the police work for us as a society not for some right wing authoritarian clique.
I like No Right Turn – it often has interesting information that is picked up much later by other media, but at other times it is frustrating in its blatant partisanship:
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/08/climate-change-this-government-is.html
National often claims that the government has failed because an element of party policy put forward before the election has not been achieved and that this represents a failure of government – and the policy is of course always represented as a promise, so according to National it is a "broken promise." We know that a three party government does require compromises, but these do not always represent failure by the party or party that wants something to happen; it may represent a ''victory" for the third party. Also of course there are some policies which are overtaken by events (covid for example?) or where other priorities mean something gets lower than desired priority.
In this case NRT is talking about a "failure'' by the Green Party and Labour – not a failure of government. We need to remember this going into an election campaign; we collectively get what we collectively vote for…
Sadly NRT does not accept comments – fair enough as far as the time it clearly takes on The Standard to keep discussion civil and weed out the nutters; but for a blog that clearly supports some Green policies to blame the government for the need for consensus that is a fundamental part of that government is somewhat short sighted – despite problems I believe that a smaller party like the Green Party does have legitimate views; I do not want voters to think that it is only worth voting for Labour or National.
IS at NRT used to accept comments a long time ago. He shut it down because he prefers to write rather than deal with the ignorant dipshits who used to write most of the comments. I think that he stopped about 2006 or 7
It was pity because the comments were often as good as the posts.
A terrible look for Judith Collins here. Corrupt husband and chief Kauri stump digger David Wong tung has taken to posting misogynist memes about the Prime Minister.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/judith-collins-responds-to-criticism-of-husband-david-wong-tung-s-anti-jacinda-ardern-social-media-posts.html
She says she can’t do anything about it but in reality she endorses this behaviour.
Should be worth at least 50K votes for JA. Keep it up David.
While I don't really think it is that clever, I am missing where the misogynist bit is.
Have you seen some of the Collin's and Bridge's ones?
You are well known for not recognising misogyny. One clue is in the use of the name "Cindy" which minimises and trivialises the PM, and all women, really.
Also worrying for Collins is the second one retweeted there by her apparently unruly husband is watermarked “the BFD” which is Slater’s vehicle. He set it up after claiming he had a stroke in order to avoid paying his debtors from the failed WOBF.
Collins has had a cosy relationship with Slater through the years, using him to conduct Dirty Politics. That relationship also contributed to her fall from grace and generally highlighted her and her husband’s corrupt nature.
Seems Mr Wong tung is still an avid reader…
Something tells me Ardern is tough enough to not get offended by a stupid nickname, or needs people getting offended on her behalf.
Same as Crusher, or does that not count as misogynistic for some reason?
Or Soymun Brudges. Which I assume is misandrist.
It's actually less IMO about Jacinda Ardern who just gets one vote & given a raft of slights that most of the public have not had to witness, and would be rightly appalled by, this is how the public will view the LOTO. Regardless of her trying to dismiss it & perhaps suggesting NZers can't "take a joke" or a bit of levity it goes to the core of showing two faces to the public, one that's relatively benign and the other that is a relationship with a nasty and dismissive view of wider NZ
You have to wonder about the intellect…feeding the base has its limitations…they can only vote once
But What About Judith's personal responsibility for the poor personal choice of 41 years ago? Isn't that what the RW says to single mothers struggling to bring up the kids? They made a poor personal choice to have kids with someone so need to be pounded by the right?
Could you imagine the uproar if first bloke was doing anything like this? but he's far too sensible.
Yea seen that. This from ODT. Photo …a right pair. The dodgy duo.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/decision-2020/collins-husband-criticised-sharing-anti-ardern-memes
Yuk, the face matches his personality.
The husband of Judith Collins is actually posting childish rubbish which one would think came from an immature 14 year old boy.
Collins shrugs and claims she can't do anything about it. This is an admission she endorses it. If she felt it was damaging she could say to her husband, "you are hurting my career, please stop". But she won't because she doesn't believe he is hurting her career.
Or, she told him to stfu and he didn't and it's better for her to make light of it in public. Her husband sounds like a total dick, and her point about not being able to control him seems potentially true.
Do you really think Collins would be genuinely concerned about what her husband's doing and would ask him to stop?
place yourself in his position and ask yourself the same question…do you wish your partner to succeed in his/her ambition?
if it was harming her election campaign, yes.
from the reporting it would appear he disagrees
yep.
But it's not so she won't.
Bring it on. The more he tweets the more the election will be a referendum on Judith Collins' relationship with her husband. If she can't control him, how can she control a cabinet?
It's probably mission accomplished now, getting the internet traffic through that toxic slater-esque website. Dirty politics john key style.
I guess he's fair game then.
If she can't even manage her husband she won't be much use as PM. Don't their billboards state "strong leadership" ?
"strong" ties to their puppet masters,
"leadership" in the game of dirty politics
" If you’ve got the secret to how you control a man who is 64 years old, used to play a lot of rugby and was a policeman, good luck and let me know,” Judith said.
Shudder…..
Yep. Screams male dominance and domestic abuse. And it screams even louder she is accepting of it.
That needs to go to the media.
Are you accusing Collin's husband of domestic abuse against her Muttonbird?
No. I am accusing her of trivialising domestic abuse in order to deflect and for political purposes.
That she would suggest the prospect is pretty gross.
OK
Point out where she is suggesting it.
Hint…… it's not about control, but Judith doesn't get that.
"“He is one of the least sexist men I know, he is married to me, how could he be sexist?” Collins said."
“He is an adult, he will make his own decisions and let’s put it this way, I don't have to answer for him because I have not been able to control him in 41 years."
These 2 claims are contradictory, Judith.
It's juvenile behaviour from the husband of the Leader of the Opposition.
Rebutting Chris Trotter's analysis of Winston Peters:
Misreading the Sorcerer's Apprentice
as usual neither party is correct…..id suggest both are writing to a desired outcome….and as time passes both will become increasingly unlikely
The green school saga get worst, funding conspiracy theorist and new age crystal moonbeams
Spring tomorrow, full moon the day after. Life is good.
"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz." and in the river and on its banks at the foot of my garden there are nests which produce cygnets and ducklings, little kawau and pukeko, tiny scaup and paradise shelducks, so I know 'where the birdies is." Life is indeed good.
Full moon as far as I can see tonight. 21 degrees today in Gisborne on the last day of winter. First day of chafing for me.
Why don't I think of myself as a manual worker? Yet by all measures I am for 34 years. I feel I'm posturing since I'm middle class and my real life is in my head.